Sunrise
by HeartOfPlumbum
Summary: There were three things I knew. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him that thirsted for my blood. And Third, he would not leave me alone. Full disclaimer for the whole story: I only own my ideas
1. Preface

Preface

I've given a surprising (and maybe scary) amount of thought on how I would die. Fighting off zombies, getting stabbed by a rapier and bleeding out in a random person's home, being beheaded after being framed for treason. Despite all of the thought I put into it, I never imagined I would die in such a stupid way.

I stared silently across the long room and into the eyes of the hunter, he looked too happy about his turn of events.

Some might say it was a good way to die, in a loyal to your friend till the end kind of way. Noble, even. Yet somehow I wasn't seeing it. Maybe if I actually liked the person I was dying for?

I knew that if I'd never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now. It was a simple math really, but as much as I would like to say I regret it, well I totally do. I'm not one to cry over spilled milk or anything but I'm kind of about to die so…

The hunter's smile widened as he sauntered forward to—no doubt— kill me, all I hoped was that they had good food at my funeral.


	2. First Sight

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix and I was trying my best to ignore the heat. I was wearing one of my favorite shirts—a loose black crop top that had "Really?" printed in block lettering. My mom said it was a good idea to wear it as a farewell gesture. Frankly, I couldn't wait to pull out my favorite maroon sweatshirt that was too hot to wear at any time in Arizona.

Somewhere in a little nook in Washington was a small town named Forks. It's nearly always under a cover of clouds and it is graced with more rain than any other place in the United States. This made it my favorite place in the world. Sadly my mom doesn't seem to agree, so when I was only a few months old she fled to California. I was luckily enough to be able to visit Charlie, my dad, there every summer until I was fourteen and therefore able to make my own decisions, so my mom decided it was a better idea for Charlie to visit me instead. We don't talk about it but I know my mom well enough to know she was afraid one summer I wouldn't want to come back. Which, to be honest, might have happened.

Now I was moving the one place I've wanted to live my entire life and I couldn't help but feel disappointed. It probably had to do with why I was moving to Forks but that involved negative feelings so I was trying to ignore it.

"Thea," my mom said to me—for probably the thousandth time— before I got on the plane. "You don't have to do this."

My face looks like my mom's; in fact I once dug up some of her old high school pictures and could barely tell the difference. I felt the sadness rising up as she stared at me with those wide brown eyes. How could I leave my spaztastic, good natured mother to fend for herself? Of course she had Phil now to take care of her, to make sure she pays the bills and puts gas in the car. Yet for some reason I couldn't help but want to stay.

"All I'm doing is going to the one place I've wanted to live since forever," I reply. It's not even a lie but I know my heart's not fully in it. I'm just lucky my mom usually just sees what she wants to.

"Tell Charlie I said hi."

"Don't worry I will."

"I'll see you soon," She insisted. "You can come home whenever you want—I'll come right back as soon as you need me."

It was easy to see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise.

"Don't worry about me," I urged with a smile. "It'll be a blast. I love you, mom."

When she hugged me she didn't seem to want to let go but eventually I had to pry myself off to catch my flight.

It's a four-hour flight from Phoenix to Seattle, another hour in a small plane up to Port Angeles, and then an hour drive back down to Forks. It was something I had done many summers past so it was nothing new. This, of course, made it all the more boring.

Charlie was genuinely pleased that I was coming to live with him. All in all he had been a good sport about the whole thing and had already registered me for high school. To my surprise he even wanted to help me find a car. Even though I was uneasy about the move, I was excited to be able to spend more time with Charlie.

When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I seemed to be the only one happy about it on the plane.

Charlie was waiting for me in his cruiser. This I was expecting, there was something about being a police chief in a small town that meant you couldn't own your own car. I was just glad he was going to help me buy a car so I wouldn't have to be _that_ kid. I mean it's cool if your dad is a cop up until sixth grade, maybe seventh if you want to push it but after that it just helps you to become a social pariah.

Charlie tried to give me an awkward one armed hug as a greeting but while I appreciated the gesture he was my dad and I hadn't seen him in months, so I quickly pulled him into an even more awkward bear hug.

"It's good to see you, Dory." He said, using his nickname for me since I was three. "You haven't changed much. How's Renee?"

"Mom's fine. It's good to see you too, Dad." He didn't appreciate it when I called him by his first name, I just thought it was funny to see his face when I tried.

I only had a few bags since most of my Arizona clothes wouldn't even cut it if it was summer in Washington. Well that and I mainly just alternated between tank-tops and some graphic tees and called it style. It was easy to fit all three bags in the trunk of cruiser. The fourth, and the bag with my lap top (aka my baby), went in my lap for safe keeping.

"I found a good car for you, really cheap," he announced after ten minutes of silence.

"Really? What kind of car is it?" I didn't really care what kind it was as long as it ran.

"Well, it's a truck actually, a Chevy."

"Where did you find it?"

"Do you remember Billy Black down at La Push?" I could faintly remember the kind smile I always received whenever Charlie took me to the tiny Indian reservation.

"Of course," I partially lied.

"He's in a wheelchair now," Charlie didn't seem to see my horrified expression at his nonchalance. "So he can't drive anymore, and he offered to sell me it cheap."

I looked at him for a minute more to see if there is anything else. "How much am I gonna have to pay for it?"

"Well, actually, I kind of already bought it. As a homecoming gift." Charlie peeked sideways at me with a hopeful expression.

"Uh… thanks, Dad. I really appreciate it." I was a firm believer in supporting yourself once you were able to. Which is why I had sold the car I had bought in Phoenix so I could buy one here.

"Well, now, you're welcome," he mumbled in response.

The rest of the ride was spent in a companionable silence. During the school year I liked to keep in touch with him through letters so he was already updated with everything important going on in my life.

Eventually we made it to Charlie's. He still lived in the small, two-bedroom house that he had bought with my mom before she ran. It was exactly the same as I had remembered from my summers except for the faded red truck that was parked in the driveway. It was like a tank and I couldn't wait to drive it.

"Dad this is great, thanks!"

"I'm glad you like it." It was clear he was embarrassed and it took all of my self-control not to coo at him.

Charlie seemed content to let leave me alone to unpack after he helped my carry my bags up the stairs and for that, I was grateful. It was nice to have a moment to myself with my thoughts. I knew I was difficult to get along with, I mean even my mom didn't really understand my sarcastic and random humor. So I'll admit I was a little intimidated by the idea of going to a school with only three hundred and fifty-seven students. At my old school I was content to be the loner in the corner but I had a feeling it would be a little harder to do that if I was the new girl.

If the fact that I was a moving from a big city several states away didn't interest anyone the fact that my mousy hair was died periwinkle would. No one at my old school really commented on my hair, mainly because they had known me since I started experimenting with different colors but that is beside the point. The point being that I had a feeling a small town wouldn't really understand my "look" even if it did match my it's-so-white-it-practically-glows-in-the-dark-skin.

Shrugging I focused back on unpacking. It's too late to do anything about it tonight.

I didn't really sleep well.

Whether it was the fact that I was in an unfamiliar place of the fact that the rain and wind didn't seem to want to shut up, either way I was still grumpy when I got up.

Knowing I my hair would just get wet from the near constant drizzle, I decided to just put it in a French braid and be done with it. Feeling equally lazy with my clothes I just picked out a black tank top and paired it with some jeans and my trusty black and white converse. To stay warm I chose a loose leather jacket that I had found at a thrift store specifically for the move here.

Breakfast was a quiet event. I could tell Charlie was getting used to living with someone else and still cranky, I was no help. He did manage to wish me good luck at school before leaving for the police station. I spent a few moments collecting myself before hopping in my new/old truck and heading down to the high school. Despite the fact that I had never been there before, the town was so small it was easy to find.

After a moment of indecision I parked in the front of the school in the guest parking. It was pretty early and the lot was empty. I walked as fast as I could through the rain and into the lukewarm office. There were three desks behind a counter and one was manned by a woman in a kind of horrible purple shirt. What was with secretaries and their questionable style?

"Can I help you?" She looked me up and down.

"Hey, I'm Dorothea Swan," She didn't seem surprised to see me but then again in a small town like this, everyone knew everybody's business.

"Of course," She said as she turned toward a pile of documents, digging until she found what she was looking for. All I could think was that, that was not a good way to organize. "I have your schedule right here, and a map of the school." She handed me two documents before pulling out a third from one of her desk drawers. "For this you have to have each teacher sign it and bring it back at the end of the day." She handed that to me as well and I glanced through the schedule before folding it and putting it in my back pocket.

"Do you need any help?" She asked and for a second I thought she meant reading the papers.

I waved my hands dismissively, trying my best to convey how much I didn't want help. "Oh no it's fine. It's a small high school I'm sure I can figure it out." I tried for my best convincing smile. "Thanks so much, I guess I will see you at the end of the day." With a small wave I was off to brave the rain.

One thing about driving an old car was that for some reason they feel the need to make an unnecessary amount of noise nearly all of the time; especially when you are trying to be inconspicuous and not cause a scene. Of course my new truck is no different, so when I did finally hop out it felt like all eyes were on me. Looking at all of the curious stares I decided that the best thing to do was just ride it out, so I held my head high and slipped on my most cocky grin before sauntering to the entrance.

It took some wandering and a little eavesdropping but I was able to find my first class before the late bell rang so I was feeling good. I started by taking the slip to the teacher, a one Mr. Mason. He gawked when he saw my name, but at my raised eyebrow he quickly signed it and sent me to a desk in the back. I did my best to ignore the blatant staring as I settled into my seat.

I didn't really pay attention as the teacher lectured. In my opinion, English was the easiest class because all you needed to do was know how to use big words to make BS sound good. Besides, there were only so many times you can hear about the difference in connotation and denotation.

When the bell finally rung a gangly boy with hair black as oil leaned across the aisle to talk to me. "You're Dorothea Swan, aren't you?"

"Call me Thea," Looking around I could see that everyone within a three seat radius was trying to listen in. "My full name is atrocious."

"What's your next class?" He asked.

I held up my finger in a 'wait one moment' gesture before pulling my schedule out of my pocket. I made sure to study it a bit more than before, "Government with Jefferson."

"I'm headed that way, I could show you…" He trailed off, "Uh I'm Eric," He added as if it was an afterthought.

"Oh, thanks." I smiled as I stood up, "I'm glad I'll have an escort, I barely made it here in one piece."

He returned the smile before leading the way.

"So this is a lot different than Phoenix, huh?" he asked and I found myself wondering if he knew how creepy it was that he knew where I was from.

"Completely."

"It doesn't rain much there, does it?"

"Only about three or four times a year."

"Wow, what must that be like?" he wondered, his eyes wide.

"Sunny," I replied and he looked at my skin skeptically and I shrugged. "What? You use enough sunscreen you can be an albino anywhere."

He studied my face apprehensively, and I sighed. It wasn't the first time someone didn't appreciate my wonderful sense of humor.

Eric didn't seem deterred as he continued to walk me around the cafeteria and to the south buildings.

"Well, good luck," he said cheerily as I started to open the door. "Maybe we'll have some other classes together." He sounded way too hopeful.

"Maybe…" I trailed off awkwardly before giving a small wave and slipping into the classroom.

The rest of the morning was surprisingly boring. My trig teacher, Mr. Varner, felt that making me stand in front of the class to introduce myself was a great idea, so he quickly became one of my least favorite teachers. After two more classes I started to recognize faces. There was always at least one overly helpful person who would show me to my next class, and for that I was grateful.

One girl named Jessica sat next to me in both trig and Spanish, and was brave enough to invite me to sit with her and her friends at lunch. She was tiny and coming from my glorious five feet four inches that meant something. The whole way to the cafeteria she prattled on about classes and teachers while I nodded and pretended to have a clue about what she was saying.

We sat at an extremely crowded table with several of her friends. She introduced all of them but my brain was quick to forget nearly half of their names. They seemed in awe at the presence of the new girl but at least I had somewhere to sit.

Eric said hi as he passed to go to his own table and it was then that I first saw them.

They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away as possible as they could from anyone else. There were five of them, sitting silently around full food trays. I couldn't blame them though, the food here was horrendous.

The weird part was that they didn't look like a group that would get along. One of the boys looked like a quarter back while the other too looked more track/soccer kind of guys. On the girls side one looked like a cheerleader while the other one looked like she rather hide in a poetry club than socialize.

The even weirder part was that all of them looked like they had never seen the sun in their life, like they had been locked in a dungeon or something to be kept away from the scary UV rays. That and the fact that all of them had the same eye color and under all ten of those eyes were dark shadows as if they had pulled an all-nighter. Despite this all five of them looked practically perfect. Not a hair or stitch of clothing out of place. Don't even get me started on their bone structure.

All in all it was definitely not something you saw every day.

"So, who are they?" I couldn't help but ask as I saw one of the girls throw her uneaten food into the trash and leave out the back door.

Jessica looked up to see who I was talking about and as if called the one that looked like a soccer player looked up and met my eyes. Before I could even turn my stare into a glare his eyes flicked away so I turned my attention to my neighbor as she giggled in embarrassment.

"That's Edward and Emmett Cullen along with Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen. They all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife." She replied in a whisper.

I looked over at the soccer player—who I assumed was Edward—whose lips began twitching as he picked at his food.

"I could write sonnets on their faces." I stated bluntly as I gave them all another once over.

"I know right!" Jessica quickly agreed with another giggle. "They're all _together_ though. Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice, I mean." Her voice was filled with shock, as if she still couldn't believe it.

"Well that's awfully incestuous." I muttered as I studied their faces. "Are they twins or something? They all look the same age." Of course that age looked much older than high school, I mean I swear they were at least college students, which just made them all the more suspicious.

"That's the thing! Most of them aren't related at all." Jessica elaborated when she saw my raised eyebrow. "Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties. They are all adopted. The Hales are twins but they are the only ones."

"The blondes right?" She nodded and I continued. "Aren't they a little past their 'I'm super cute so you should adopt me' age?"

"They are now, Jasper and Rosalie are both eighteen, but they've been with Mrs. Cullen since they were like eight. She's their aunt or something like that."

"Huh," I turned back to look at Jessica. "I suppose that's super nice of the Cullens to take care of them like that."

"I guess so," From her face I could tell the teen was not a big fan of the doctor and his wife. "I think that Mrs. Cullen can't have any kids, though." She added after a moment of glancing back at the "teens."

Now my curiosity was thoroughly piqued and I couldn't help but pry some more. "Have they always lived in Forks?" I tried to think back to my summers here to see if I could remember any of their faces.

"No," She replied as if it was obvious. "They just moved down two years ago from somewhere in Alaska."

Alaska? Now that was interesting. I found myself wondering if that was why they seemed so unwelcome.

I looked back up at the group and I saw the one I dubbed Edward staring furiously at me, as if expecting something. I raised an eyebrow and he looked away.

"That one's Edward right?" I asked Jessica with a nod in his direction. Looking out of the corner of my eye I saw he had gone back to staring, except now he seemed frustrated.

She nodded, "Yup but don't waste your time. He may be gorgeous but he doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls are good looking enough for him." She replied with disdain and I couldn't help but wonder how quickly it took him to turn her down or if she had even tried in the first place. From the wide birth the other students were giving them, I had a feeling they weren't invited to many parties.

As if on cue all four stood and left the table. Moving quickly out the back door, just as the other girl had done. They were all surprisingly graceful as they let themselves out and I found myself comparing them to dancers which, of course, lead to the mental image of all of them in leotards. My quiet snort was ignored by the rest of the table.

I spent the remainder of lunch trying to socialize with Jessica's friends but all I really managed to do was learn that Angela, a sweet quiet girl, had biology II with me after lunch. We walked together in silence and I was happy she didn't feel the need to ask me a million questions about Phoenix.

When we entered the classroom Angela gave me a small wave before heading to what looked like an already assigned seat. The classroom was filled with the thick black tables that you could only find in a science classroom, and nearly all of them had a pair of people already seated and ready for class. The only one that didn't had by an auburn haired boy that, when he turned, I recognized as Edward Cullen.

Afraid that was going to be my new seat; I walked to the back of the room to introduce myself to the teacher. Just as I passed the unique teen he tensed and sat up straight in his seat. His face had a pinched expression as he glared at me with open hostility. I had to refrain from flipping him the bird as a response. Instead I gave my best fake smile and a wave. I almost stumbled when I noticed his eyes were nearly coal black. Those must be some realistic contacts or something.

The teacher, Mr. Banner, a very straightforward guy, just gave me a book and sent me to the one open seat in the classroom to my dismay. As I walked back toward Edward I decided I would give him one chance to redeem himself before I decided how I felt about him.

I gave a quiet "Afternoon," as I set my book down and settled into the uncomfortable plastic chair. Edward didn't reply and when I turned to look at him I saw that he was leaning away from me, sitting on the very edge of his chair and making sure to keep his eyes on the whiteboard up front. His nose was wrinkled like he had smelled something bad. As inconspicuously as I could, I sniffed the sleeve of my jacket but was only met with the familiar smell of my sunflower perfume.

As the teacher began to give his lecture I tried my hardest to pay attention but it was on cellular anatomy and I had just learned that at my old school. So instead I brought out a piece of scratch paper and began doodling. Every now and then I would peek at Edward to see that, if anything, he was growing tenser.

The longer the class went on the more my dislike for the male grew. I understood why no other students wanted to talk to the Cullens, if all of them shared Mr. Pissy's sunny attitude I wouldn't want to socialize with them either.

Maybe he had social anxiety and was trying not to scream like a little girl because he was next to another human being. That thought brought an image of Edward squealing like a cliché horror movie victim and that made me feel better.

When the class was drawing to an end I took one more peek at Edward to only see him glaring at me with pure revulsion and I found myself physically flinching. I looked up to make sure the teacher was occupied before turning back to the male. Giving another fake smile I put my middle finger up on full display, this didn't lessen his disgust but it did earn a few snickers from the students behind us.

Feeling like I had conveyed a good F*** you, I turned back to catch the end of the lesson, making sure to ignore him with all my might.

It wasn't long before the bell rang and Edward was out the door before anyone could even stand. I couldn't help but mutter a "good riddance" as I began packing up my things.

"Aren't you Dorothea Swan?" A voice asked behind me and I turned to see a cute, baby-faced boy, smiling in a friendly way. He didn't seem to think I smelled bad.

"I prefer Thea but yea," I replied with a grin.

"I Mike," he gave a small wave.

"Nice to meet you."

"Do you need help finding your next class?" He got to the point and I shook my head.

"I actually have gym so I think I'm good." This seemed to make him even happier.

"That's my next class too!" He gave me a big smile.

As we walked to the gym he supplied most of the conversation, explaining that he lived in California till he was ten so he understood the whole new kid thing. I also learned that he shared English with me as well. He seemed the opposite of Edward and it was nice to, well, talk to someone so nice. He kind of ruined it though, when he brought up the rude teen.

"So did you stab Cullen with a pencil or what? I've never seen him act like that." That proved it was only me that brought out the Squidward in Edward, figures.

"I think that he's jealous that I'm prettier than he is." I staged whispered with a wink, causing Mike to bust out laughing. "Really I don't know. All I said was 'afternoon' so unless he has bad memories of afternoons I didn't do anything."

We had reached the gym and instead of heading towards the boy's locker room Mike lingered to talk to me. "He's a weird guy. If I was lucky enough to sit next to you, I would have talked to you."

"Well I would have talked back." I said with a smile before we parted ways.

The gym teacher, Coach Clapp, found me a uniform but didn't make me dress out since it was my first day and for that I was grateful. I was horrible at anything sport related and I usually hurt myself more than I played.

I watched the class play volleyball until the final bell rang. I made sure to wave goodbye to Mike before slowly heading toward the office. When I finally reached it I almost turned around and walked back out.

Edward stood in front of the same receptionist I met that morning, arguing furiously with her. Neither noticed my entrance so I stood back to wait for my turn, trying not to eavesdrop but when I caught the word "biology" I was all ears.

It only took a moment to realize he was trying to switch out of that class to another time, in his words, _any _other time but she didn't seem to be having it. This made my blood begin to boil. I tried to reason that there was no way he could have taken such a strong first impression of me but all evidence showed that he had.

In a moment of thoughtlessness I stomped over and slapped the paper down on the counter. Edward tensed and actually scooted away from me.

"Sorry to interrupt but I'm running a little late. So here is my paper." I said as politely as I could to the receptionist before turning toward Edward. "Can't wait to see you tomorrow in Bio, Eddy." My smile was clearly forced and out of the corner of my eye I saw the receptionist looking curiously between us.

Before either could say another thing I stomped back out. If he wanted to be a little brat I would treat him like a little brat.

When I got in my car I found a classic rock radio station and blasted it. With a plan to take my anger out on a pint of ice cream when I got home, I felt better.


End file.
